place--so swiftly too that the monsters of the sea were swimming and
running and that it was with difficulty they escaped with the sea.
However, many fishes were left behind on the dry strand owing to the
suddenness of the ebb. Declan, his crosier in his hand, pursued the
receding tide and his disciples followed after him. Moreover the sea
and the departing monsters made much din and commotion and when
Declan arrived at the place where is now the margin of the sea a
stripling whose name was Mainchin, frightened at the thunder of the
waves and the cry of the unknown monsters with gaping mouths
following the (receding) water, exclaimed:--"Father, you have driven
out the sea far enough; for I am afraid of those horrid monsters."
When Declan heard this and (saw) the sea standing still at the word
of the youth it displeased him and turning round he struck him a
slight blow on the nose. Three drops of blood flowed from the wound
on to the ground in three separate places at the feet of Declan.
Thereupon Declan blessed the nose and the blood ceased immediately
(to flow). Then Declan declared:--"It was not I who drove out the sea
but God in His own great power who expelled it and He would have done
still more had you not spoken the words you have said." Three little
wells of clear sweet water burst forth in the place where fell the
three drops of blood at the feet of Declan, and these wells are there
still and the colour of blood is seen in them occasionally as a
memorial of this miracle. The shore, rescued from the sea, is a mile
in width and is of great length around (the island) and it is good
and fertile land for tillage and pasture--lying beneath the monastery
of Declan. As to the crosier which was in Declan's hand while he
wrought this miracle, this is its name--the Feartach Declain, from
the miracles and marvels [fertaib] wrought through it. I shall in
another, subsequent, place relate some of these miracles (narrated).